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  <div class="section" id="compile-definitions">
<span id="prop_dir:COMPILE_DEFINITIONS"></span><h1>COMPILE_DEFINITIONS<a class="headerlink" href="#compile-definitions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Preprocessor definitions for compiling a directory’s sources.</p>
<p>This property specifies the list of options given so far to the
<span class="target" id="index-0-command:add_compile_definitions"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../command/add_compile_definitions.html#command:add_compile_definitions" title="add_compile_definitions"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">add_compile_definitions()</span></code></a> (or <span class="target" id="index-0-command:add_definitions"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../command/add_definitions.html#command:add_definitions" title="add_definitions"><code class="xref cmake cmake-command docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">add_definitions()</span></code></a>) command.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">COMPILE_DEFINITIONS</span></code> property may be set to a semicolon-separated
list of preprocessor definitions using the syntax <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">VAR</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">VAR=value</span></code>.
Function-style definitions are not supported.  CMake will
automatically escape the value correctly for the native build system
(note that CMake language syntax may require escapes to specify some
values).</p>
<p>This property will be initialized in each directory by its value in the
directory’s parent.</p>
<p>CMake will automatically drop some definitions that are not supported
by the native build tool.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: Most native build tools have poor support for escaping
certain values.  CMake has work-arounds for many cases but some values
may just not be possible to pass correctly.  If a value does not seem
to be escaped correctly, do not attempt to work-around the problem by
adding escape sequences to the value.  Your work-around may break in a
future version of CMake that has improved escape support.  Instead
consider defining the macro in a (configured) header file.  Then
report the limitation.  Known limitations include:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>#          - broken almost everywhere
;          - broken in VS IDE 7.0 and Borland Makefiles
,          - broken in VS IDE
%          - broken in some cases in NMake
&amp; |        - broken in some cases on MinGW
^ &lt; &gt; \&quot;   - broken in most Make tools on Windows
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>CMake does not reject these values outright because they do work in
some cases.  Use with caution.</p>
<p>Contents of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">COMPILE_DEFINITIONS</span></code> may use “generator expressions” with
the syntax <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">$&lt;...&gt;</span></code>.  See the <span class="target" id="index-0-manual:cmake-generator-expressions(7)"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../manual/cmake-generator-expressions.7.html#manual:cmake-generator-expressions(7)" title="cmake-generator-expressions(7)"><code class="xref cmake cmake-manual docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cmake-generator-expressions(7)</span></code></a>
manual for available expressions.  See the <span class="target" id="index-0-manual:cmake-buildsystem(7)"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../manual/cmake-buildsystem.7.html#manual:cmake-buildsystem(7)" title="cmake-buildsystem(7)"><code class="xref cmake cmake-manual docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cmake-buildsystem(7)</span></code></a>
manual for more on defining buildsystem properties.</p>
<p>The corresponding <span class="target" id="index-0-prop_dir:COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_&lt;CONFIG&gt;"></span><a class="reference internal" href="COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_CONFIG.html#prop_dir:COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_&lt;CONFIG&gt;" title="COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_&lt;CONFIG&gt;"><code class="xref cmake cmake-prop_dir docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">COMPILE_DEFINITIONS_&lt;CONFIG&gt;</span></code></a> property may
be set to specify per-configuration definitions.  Generator expressions
should be preferred instead of setting the alternative property.</p>
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